By Renato Lopez Moreira -
This is a progression of last week's 5 v 5 game to work spacing and player movement. We now play 8 v 8 The game area is 50 x 45 yards and it is played as two 15 minute halves.
The field is once again divided into four zones. This time each zone contains
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By Renato Lopez Moreira - This is a 5 v 5 game to work spacing and player movement. The game area is 44 x 39 yards and it is played as two 10 minute halves. The field is divided into four zones. Each zone contains an attacker and a defender. An additional attacker and defender begin
Continue readingBy Renato Lopez Moreira - This game is a progression of the previous 5 v 5 games I've presented over that last few weeks. The game is played in a 30 x 30 yard area divided into two 15 x 30 yard areas There is no limitations on the number of touches each player can
Continue readingBy Renato Lopez Moreira - This game is a progress of the one from 'Possession From Target to Target' last week. The game is played in a 30 x 30 yard area divided into two 15 x 30 yard areas There is no limitations on the number of touches each player can take Ten consecutive
Continue readingBy Renato Lopez Moreira -
This game is a progress of the one from 'Possession Under Pressure' last week.
Exercise
The Attackers have to exchange passes between them and the
Continue readingBy Renato Lopez Moreira -
Today's featured activity is a small-sided.
It is a 5 v 5 game that is played on a 27 x 27 yard area for 10 minutes.
The players are not limited to a certain number of touches. The passes can be short or medium in length, with players moving without the ball to create options..
10 consecutive passes worth 1 point.
When the the ball leaves the team that touched it last is on defense.
Exercise
The Attackers exchange passes between them trying to
Continue readingTeaching players the technical skills of the game is the most important job of a coach who is working with young players. Finding new and creative ways to help the players groove passing technique is one of the more challenging things to do. The players need hundreds of repetitions of the correct technique before their muscles can repeat the motion accurately. There's only so long that two players can stand across from each other and pass the ball back and forth before they'll grow bored and loose focus. But if you move too quickly into competitive passing and possession games, which are fun and engaging, then the players won't use the correct technique and they'll end up repeating poor passes. Remember, practice doesn't make perfect; practice makes permanent.
So new ways to present the same technical challenge becomes the objective. One of the variations I've used is from a session that I found in our, 'Training Sessions of Europe's Top Teams'. It's a session that Jan Prujin of Ajax F.C.
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Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on developing play out of the midfield.
Start using half a field with a line 35 yards out. There is a keeper in goal, two attacking players and two defending players in the final quarter and four attacking players and three defending players in the area near midfield.
The attacking team starts with the
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on passing, receiving and overlapping runs.
Start with an area 30 x 15. There are 2 players on each end and 2 players in the middle. One of the players on an end starts with a ball.
The player with the ball starts by passing to one of the
Continue readingI use diamond passing drills as often as possible in my sessions because of how closely they resemble the shape of the game. They relate to every age and and every level of the game.
They are the most powerful when you're able to connect the passing movements in the drill with the movements on the field in a game situation.
This progression of exercises increase in complexity and finishes by putting the patterns on a field using the formation the team will be using in the game.
Diamond Drill - Passing & Turning
In the following diagrams, five players are lined up in a diamond formation 20 yards apart. Each drill begins with X1 starting with the ball.
• X1 begins by passing to X2 and follows the pass
• X2 moves away, first to create space in front, and then checks back
• X2 turns with the ball around the OUTSIDE of the cone
• X2 then passes to X3, and follows the pass
• X3 moves away and then checks in
• Repeat sequence
Diamond Drill Passing &Turning - Variation
Players must now
By Alex Trukan
This exercise is an unopposed, continuous passing pattern aimed at developing aerobic power. Passing tempo and position interchanges forces players to be constantly on the move below their anaerobic threshold. Therefore, the practice is focused on developing the capacity to recover and sustain prolonged match conditions.
Set-Up and Directions
Organise 8 cones and players as shown on the diagram. Distance between first and second cones from the bottom should be half shorter than the distance between the second and third. Min. number of players for this exercise is 8.
The practice starts with a player on the bottom cone who makes a vertical pass forwards. The receiver on the
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on playing balls back to the keeper.
Using the keeper to relieve pressure is an important part of playing out of the back but it’s also something that is frequently neglected in training. Here is a simple activity that works on just this aspect of the game.
Start with a keeper in goal and a group of field player 40 yards from goal. A server is 45 yards out with some balls.
The server plays a ball behind the
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on passing, receiving, quick turns and movement off the ball.
Start with 2 lines of players 20 yards apart and one player in the middle. A ball starts with the first player in one of the lines.
The player with the ball passes to the player in the
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on footwork, fitness and finishing.
Start with three balls lined up 5 yards apart beyond the top of the D and then 6 balls spread out around the top of the 18. There is a keeper in goal and a line of players beyond the last ball.
The first player starts by sprinting to the first ball and
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity is a quick passing and receiving activity to be used as a warm up.
Start with two lines of cones with each cone 3 yards from the next. The two lines are 5 yards apart. There are two players in this activity and one ball.
The players are playing two touch and it starts with
Continue readingSome coaches may consider pattern play to be limiting. They say, 'I don't want my players to be robots that just pass and move in the patterns that I've taught them.' I can understand this and I agree with it but where are our players supposed to get their creative ideas from? We want our
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on passing under pressure and moving after the pass.
Start with 4 lines of players, with each line in the middle of an endline of a 25 x 25 area. One player starts with a ball.
The sequence is quite simple. The player with the ball passes to
Continue readingOnce we've taught players the proper technical components of passing (foot next to the ball, toes out and up, ankle locked, pass through the middle of the ball) then the natural progression is to have the players pass and move in a pattern in order to accommodate team of players and to replicate the shapes found inside of the game.
The most widely used shape is probably the classic 'Dutch Square'
